Coinbase Commences Ethereum Classic Support, Ups Purchase Limits

Coinbase has long held a highly coveted spot as one of the most well-established cryptocurrency platforms in the world. Following a series of recent announcements, it has become apparent that the California-based firm intends to hold this position for years to come.

Coinbase Pro Officially Launches Ethereum Classic Support

On Tuesday morning, Coinbase Pro took to Twitter to announce that it had successfully completed testing for its support of Ethereum Classic, which now is the 12th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

“We announced final testing for Ethereum Classic last Friday, with a goal of accepting transfers for exchange users by Tuesday August 7th. Our testing has gone according to plan and we will be launching support first on our exchanges (Coinbase Pro).”

While Coinbase Pro’s support for ETC officially commencing, fully-fledged trading features will not be available for consumers just yet. It was noted that support for limit, market and stop orders would be rolled out to Coinbase Pro users in a four-stage process over the next few days. It is important to note that ETC will not be available for Coinbase Consumer just yet, with the platform citing liquidity concerns as the primary reason why the asset will not initially be available for the retail consumer-focused exchange.

As of the time of writing, the price of Ethereum Classic is currently down 6%, underperforming Bitcoin by upwards of 4%. Despite today’s decline, Ethereum Classic has surged over the past few days, as a direct result of the aforementioned news, which hit headlines across this fledgling industry.

Coinbase Ups Purchase Limits, Introduces Immediate Trading Features

Just minutes after the ETC announcement, Coinbase revealed that it was adding two new features, which would surely draw in the attention of more than just a few consumers.

Firstly, the exchange announced the implementation of “significantly higher default limits” for accounts seeking the purchase of cryptocurrencies. For a majority of accounts, trading limits will be increased to a hefty $25,000 per day, which is a seven times increase in comparison to the prior limits. While a $25,000 purchase may seem unattainable to most individuals, this new and improved limit gives higher levels of financial freedom to the so-called cryptocurrency “whales,” who may be looking to make larger fiat allocations into this space.

Last but not least, the exchange has finally struck down the five-day settlement period for direct debits, which was the pet peeve of many investors over the past few months. Prior to this announcement, users had to wait up to five days to receive their funds following a direct debit request, causing a multitude of issues for many cryptocurrency traders.

Closing off the announcement, Coinbase highlighted its plans for the rollout of these two features, writing:

“We’ve begun making these updates available and are now beginning to roll them out more broadly. They will be available over the next month to US customers who have completed the identity verification process with Coinbase. Customers who have not yet completed this process will be required to do so before having access to instant purchases, new trading limits and the ability to withdraw or send coins off-platform. We’ll also be working hard to bring these same improvements to our customers around the world.”

While these developments may not amount to much on the surface, the firm’s ceaseless drive for innovation and self-improvement goes to show that the dismal state of the market has had no visible effect on Coinbase’s operations.